Talk:Comprehensive catalog of Anchor Bay Entertainment releases
Add topicOut of all the Anchor Bay divisions, Burbank Video and Bingo Video seem to be the weirdest of them all, at least in my opinion. Some of the VHS tapes that were issued on both labels were of licensed/sub-licensed material, others were of material that slipped into the notorious Public Domain.
For example, "The Jupiter Menace" is probably one of the movies that Burbank most likely secured permission to issue.
The Video Treasures and Starmaker Entertainment labels, on the other hand, were more well-known for licensed/sub-licensed material. 69.85.235.48 15:27, 27 January 2025 (UTC)
Further Investigation
[edit]I've recently found an article on an October 19, 1991 edition of Billboard Magazine mentioning about Burbank Video being a PD-based label and MNTEX (misspelled on the article as Mntek) being a special-interest label; but, according to my past projections, they're both variety bargain labels (i.e. MNTEX occasionally issued PD material, and Burbank occasionally issued obscure licensed material).
At this point, I seriously hope someone in the community will be able to investigate further on whether any magazines or newspapers advertised Burbank Video and any of its releases.
69.85.235.232 13:54, 21 February 2025 (UTC)
Republic Pictures
[edit]It's honestly kind of hilarious how a majority of the films in the public domain were from the Republic Pictures library, yet in 1993, when Republic was reclaiming the copyright to "It's a Wonderful Life" (most specifically its music soundtrack), they were in an argument with Video Treasures (obviously later known by 1995 as Anchor Bay Entertainment as most of us freaking know by now), which at the time had no plans to withdraw their VHS editions of the film. VT/AB president George Port claimed that VT/AB had no idea what was going on, to which the then-chairman and CEO of Republic replied that VT/AB definitely knew about the copyright dispute. I'm kind of surprised that I can't find any evidence of Republic ordering VT/AB or Hollywood Select Video to withdraw "Suicide Commandos", since VT/AB and HS probably thought that film was public domain even though according to the U.S. Copyright Office's public catalog it appears to remain under copyright. 69.85.235.45 19:18, 3 April 2025 (UTC)
Fireworks Home Video
[edit]The Audiovisual Identity Database claims that Fireworks Home Video appears to have been a sub-label of Burbank Video. AFAIK, this is technically false.
USA Entertainment, Inc. (which later in 1992 presumably became City Island), which Fireworks was actually a division of, was the production company of Lanny Lee. And AFAIK, Lanny Lee never had a direct association with Burbank Video whatsoever. Lee's license agreement with the Handleman Company appears to have been a five-year one, and he appears to have let the agreement expire by the very beginning of 1995 and has since had license agreements with a few other discount labels, including Diamond Entertainment Corporation and Entertainment Distributing (later known as Timeless Media Group).
BTW, how do I swear that USA became City Island, you may ask? Well, it's because a few of Lanny Lee's later titles from 1992 (and I believe 1993) were released on Video Treasures, albeit under the normal VT imprint instead of the Burbank Video one, and the boxes for those refer to "City Island."
2600:387:15:3A15:0:0:0:A 02:34, 5 September 2025 (UTC)
Hollywood Dinosaurs
[edit]This documentary was produced by Lanny Lee. And since it was produced in 1991, I wonder if this was ever released on Burbank Video / Video Treasures in early 1992, or if it was delayed until 1993.
The 1993 Video Treasures release inexplicably makes no mention of Burbank Video whatsoever. Neither did a few of the Lanny Lee titles Video Treasures released in late 1992. 2601:4C4:4000:A8C0:E00C:5661:19F1:821C 02:29, 11 September 2025 (UTC)